- Now if your bike is making a noise
other than perhaps the swooshing of rubber tires
along the road or the occasional change of gear,
then it is possible that you need to
actually try and solve that noise.
Now, it is not necessarily the easiest thing to
actually diagnose because different people
call different noises different things.
Confused?
Don't be.
Let's try and identify those noises and
let's try and solve that problem.
(upbeat music)
Now the sound of your chain scraping or grinding
could well be due to the fact that
your gears are not indexed correctly.
So what I mean by that is that
the chain is not sitting correctly
on the sprocket that you're asking it to sit on.
So, what are we gonna do to try and solve that?
Well firstly, let's put the chain
into the smallest sprocket on the rear of the bike
'cause that is the one with the lowest
number of teeth and then simply stand
behind the bike and look at the rear derailleur.
And in particular that upper pulley wheel,
or the upper jockey wheel.
You could also call it the guide wheel too.
Now, have a little look at that and make sure
that it's sat dead on, spot on beneath that sprocket
that you're asking it to be in.
Now if it's to the side at all you are going to
need to give it a little bit of attention.
So what I would suggest doing here is actually
to un-clamp the cable clamping bolt and then
wind all the way your barrel adjuster,
pull through the cable and then apply decent amount
of tension on the grip and then re-clamp the cable.
Now you want to change gear into an easier gear.
So give it one click, pedal the cranks around,
and then wait for it to see if it moves on to
the next gear, the one that you're asking it to.
Now, if it's not moving onto that sprocket,
what you are going to need to do is slowly wind out
that barrel adjuster, which you just tightened in.
Therefore, that's gonna apply more tension onto
the cable and move that derailleur onto that next sprocket.
Now, you are going to need to apply a very fine
amount of adjustment there to actually
make sure the chain is not still rubbing.
But you can slowly watch it moving across
and not rub on either sprocket each side of it.
Now of course there could be another cause
of that grinding sound, and that could
well be the front derailleur cage.
Now one of the most common ways of this happening
is when someone's riding along and they're riding
the big chain ring at the front and at the rear,
on the cassette, they're riding in the big sprocket there.
So essentially, they're asking the chain to work
at quite a severe angle, and that chain is actually
rubbing on the inside of the front derailleur cage.
And the opposite is when a rider is riding
on the smallest chain and the smallest sprocket
in the rear and again it's working a very
extreme angle and it is simply rubbing on there.
Now, some ways around this is to give your
gear lever a small movement inwards, asking it almost
to move onto the biggest chain ring, for instance.
And then you do have like an extra little bit of
index system to get rid of that grinding sound.
But sometimes you simply have to un-clamp
your cable bolt, pull through that cable
just a little bit tighter, and re-tighten it
just to try and take up any slack.
(upbeat music)
Now, a clicking sound when riding along on your bike
is probably one of the most irritating sounds
you could have, other then the tssss of a puncture.
The reason it's so irritating is because it's
going to make you want to pedal less whilst riding along.
And, well, that's not part of cycling, is it?
But what could it be?
Well, firstly, let's look at the bottom bracket.
Now, press fit bottom brackets they tend to get
a bit of a bad reputation because they're interference fit
into a frame as opposed to using threads.
So have a look at your bottom bracket.
If there's no notches inside of the bottom bracket itself,
for using a tool to install it, then you've
got a press fit bottom bracket.
Now, the bottom bracket itself is kind of the
junction box where all of the power is transferred
from your legs through to the actual drive train.
So, like I've already mentioned, it's an
interference fit unit on those press fit bottom brackets,
so if a frame is not built or made perfectly
cylindrical on the inside of the bottom bracket shell,
sometimes those press fit bottom brackets can
actually slightly move around inside of the shell,
therefore giving you an irritating
creaking or clicking sound.
But in actual fact, it can be a process
of elimination to find out where that clicking
or ticking or creaking is actually coming from.
And it's likely the bottom bracket is the last place
I would look to actually try and solve the problem
because it's the most labor intensive parts
of the bike to work on in most cases.
So, first up I would have a look at your pedals.
Make sure they are done up correctly into the cranks.
And also they've got some grease on the threads there too.
Sticking with pedals, actually ride along,
first of all with your cleats in, then single legged
and also without cleats fitted as well,
to see if it's the cleats that are making the noise.
It could well be a cleat bolt that needs
re-tightening, using some grease of course.
Or maybe it is, in fact, a worn out pedal bearing
inside the actual body of it itself.
And also it could well be your chainring bolt.
So make sure that they're fully greased up and
also torqued up to correct specification too
because a little bit of movement down there on
the chainring can, in fact, cause an awful lot of noise.
Now, with all of these threaded components which we've
mentioned, you are going to need grease, in my opinion,
on them to actually prevent them from seizing up
and also to prevent them from clicking, creaking,
whatever we want to call it, whilst you're riding along.
Now, if you've got one of these press fit bottom brackets,
some manufacturers do recommend to use different compounds
whilst installing them, however, the different varieties
of options out there is quite lengthy, so I would
definitely advise speaking to your local shop
before going ahead any compounds inside of it.
Now a final one to look at with this noise is
actually your quick releases and your axle.
So always give the quick releases a coating
of grease or something of a medium viscosity.
All purpose grease is absolutely fine.
And then don't forget to actually grease on to the axle
where it sits inside of the dropout too, because
occasionally a small amount of flex can
create that annoying tick, click, or creak.
(upbeat music)
Final one, the rattle.
Now this one can be a fairly easy one to diagnose
and solve because it's the loudest noise of all.
So, first point of call I would look at is definitely
where your cables are going near your frame.
That way you can see if there's any paint missing,
for instance, that's a certain indicator of a rattle
which could well be causing that noise.
So if you have got that, then it's certainly
worth getting some self-adhesive frame protector
and simply placing it where that rubbing has been occurring.
However, there could well be some internal rattles.
Now this one required a little bit of MacGyver,
and I do like a bit of MacGyver.
I had an internal cable rattling in the past and
I think the best way of solving it is to remove
the components so you can actually access into that
frame and then get yourself some bubble wrap.
I find this is great because it doesn't
absorb water, it doesn't block water.
Once upon a time someone I knew used a sponge,
and that tends to hold a little bit of water in there
when water does find it's way into the frame tube.
But that bubble wrap, you can put loads of it in there,
it's lightweight and it stops the cables
from rattling on the inside of that frame.
Get it MacGyver!
Of course now it could well be a loose headset.
And one easy way of finding out that is
simply grab the bike, pull the front brake and
try and rock the bike backwards and forwards.
If there's any clunkiness in it then, yeah,
it's likely that your headset has slowly come loose.
Now, the way of adjusting this is to loosen
your top cap adjuster bolt slightly and then undo
your stem bolts too on either side, and then
simply take up the slack enough so that when you
pull on the front brake and try and rock it
there's no more rocking there.
That's a result.
But also, you want to make sure the
handlebars turn freely as well.
So there's no stiffness, no grauchiness, anything like that.
You may well feel a little bit of resistance.
If you are, just bear in mind it could be your
brake cable, your gear cables too,
where they are just taking up a little bit of that slack.
Now once you're happy that the headset is all okay
and there's no rattling, no stiffness, anything like that,
then simply tighten up your stem bolts and you are good.
Of course, make sure that they're
on the correct torque settings.
This can take a bit of to-ing and fro-ing
because you can tighten them up, rock it and
then find out there's a little bit of looseness still.
Or maybe it's a little bit tight.
So it is a game of cat and mouse, if you like.
You have to be patient.
One thing to consider though, if your headset
has been rattling for quite some time,
then it is likely that the bearings
are now useless, to be perfectly honest.
You may well get a little bit of extra life out of them,
but ultimately it's worth replacing them.
The reason being, each and every time that the headset
has been loose and you've hit one of those holes
in the road, that impact has really been amplified
due to the lack of compression from the top cap.
So I would have a look at replacing those bearings.
There we are then.
I hope that now some of those noises have gone from
your bike because a loud bike is absolutely terrible.
Nothing's worse, can't stand it.
Right, let me know though, what are your ways
of getting rid of some noises on your bike.
What's been the trickiest one that
you've had to find and then solve?
Let me know down there in the comments section,
I want to find out exactly what you've been getting up to.
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